Much Like Falling
by Aiffe
Summary: -First place winner at iyfic contest- High school AU. "They say girls of the Higurashi line have a gift." Now continued!
1. Chapter 1

Originally written for iyfic contest's "High school AU" theme. Everyone was doing it! I just wanted to be popular!

* * *

That's her over there. Kagura, the principal's daughter, smoking a cigarette behind the school. Her hair's been dyed so many times the color refuses to take, leaving her with a muddy rainbow. Her makeup is equally unnatural, though it fails to distract from the livid bruise on her left cheek. There are rumors, of course, about her father. No one would be surprised. With a mouth like that, anyone would hit her. But it could just as easily be the tough boys she hangs out with. No one knows where she goes, what she does, what's been done to her.

Kagome freezes when Kagura turns her gaze on her, angry, accusing. "What are _you_ looking at?" Kagura demands. Kagome falters. Kagura's nails are long and sharp, not acrylics but real nails, the kind that could draw blood. She's heard stories. Everyone has.

"I, ah," Kagome starts unevenly. "Can you spare a smoke?" She doesn't smoke, of course. What would her mother think? What would Kikyou-nee-chan say? But she takes the cigarette from Kagura, and puts it in her mouth. Kagura looks at her intently, holding the lighter underneath her chin, but not flicking it. She blows a plume of smoke in Kagome's face, and Kagome nearly collapses coughing, accidentally spitting her cigarette onto the grass.

"You don't even smoke. Idiot," Kagura says, picking up Kagome's cigarette and shoving it back in her pack. "So what do you want?"

"To talk."

"Why?"

"I don't know."

Kagura regards her with suspicion. "If this is some attempt to 'save' me...if you're offering to dye my hair back or help me with my homework or reform me in any way—"

"No. That's not it."

"You want something, though. Drugs, maybe? I don't have any, but I can tell you who—"

"No." Kagome shakes her head. "Nothing like that." She takes a deep breath. Kagura isn't making this easy. "Do you ever..." she pauses, uncertain, "have weird dreams?"

"No," Kagura says easily. "Never."

"Not even—"

"I don't dream." Kagura shrugs lightly. "I never have."

Kagome wants to say that that's impossible, that maybe she forgets her dreams, but she surely dreams them, everyone dreams...but she sees Kagura's face, calm, beautiful, her eyes gleaming just a little too red, and in that moment she believes that Kagura has never dreamed.

"Then," Kagome says, searching, "a feeling, maybe. Like we should be somewhere else."

Kagura exhales smoke, and watches it thread through the air. Kagome thinks, strangely, that she doesn't smoke for the high or to rebel; she smokes to become a part of the air, to fly. "All the time," Kagura says. "But there's nothing else to do, nothing else for us to be." She looks suddenly at Kagome again. "You're her sister, aren't you? You used to have longer hair."

Kagome puts a hand to her short-shorn hair, self-consciously. "We're twins," she says. "I hated getting confused with her."

"She's quite popular."

"I know. That was the problem." Kagome doesn't say any more. She doesn't need to.

Kagome shivers, and Kagura takes off her torn denim jacket and hands it to her. Kagome takes it and puts it on, even though it smells of smoke.

"Does your sister have these dreams too?" Kagura says, the scorn almost gone from her voice, giving way to curiosity.

"At night? I don't know," Kagome says. "Maybe. We're close, but...she doesn't tell me everything. But as you know, she faints sometimes, due to her medical condition. She wakes in a terror, crying that she dreamed she was dead. She seems very strong about it, but she's always afraid of passing out again, as though it really were like dying."

Kagura closes her eyes, listening. "Is that really so scary?"

"What, dying? I'd say so."

Kagura shrugs, again. "There's this guy. Wild guy. Older than me. We go for motorcycle rides. The way he rides, you'd think he was immortal. I'm not, but I ride with him. When we're the fastest thing on the highway, when we go too fast around the turns on mountain roads, or pass a whole string of traffic on the wrong side of the road, I see death. My death. You'd think I'd scream for him to slow down. Stop riding with him. But I don't. I only say one word: 'faster!' Like if we went fast enough, we could outpace death, outrun life itself, and be free." For a moment she's lost in her own words, seeing the road blur and feeling the cutting wind.

"One of my dreams was about you," Kagome says, a new urgency in her voice. "They say girls of the Higarashi line have a gift...so please, be careful, Kagura-san." She puts her hand on Kagura's shoulder, and Kagura looks at her, surprised. There's something between them then, something unsaid, maybe something that can never be said. Kagome's eyes plead with her, and surely, if she hadn't before, Kagura knows she is mortal.

Before the surprise can give way to contempt, a deep voice calls their attention, and both girls whirl around guiltily. "Smoking again, Kagura?" It's the principal, Kagura's father, Naraku. Kagura looks at him like she wants to put her cigarette out in his eye, but drops it, and grinds it out slowly beneath her school-regulation pennyloafer. She glares at her father all the while, and her face colors, darkening her bruise.

"Higurashi-san," Naraku says, "were you—"

"Of course not," Kagura cuts in. "This goody-goody? She was just lecturing me, trying to save me. The idiot." She sneers. "I told her not to, but she doesn't listen very well." Kagura looks at Kagome meaningfully as she says this.

Naraku smiles genially. "I do appreciate your efforts, Higurashi-san, but really, delinquents like this one are best left to the professionals."

Kagome can't explain why or how, but her heart fills with terror. She knows that what she fears isn't detention, or the ruining of her reputation, but something deeper, more primal. Her vision darkens, and she thinks that she must have inherited her sister's weakness after all, because it feels as though death itself has come to swallow her. She tries to focus on Kagura's brave, foolish words, tries to see the road speeding past and feel nothing but the wind, clinging to the back of some strange, reckless man, but as Kagura and her father walk away she falls to her knees, and sees only an empty field of flowers.


	2. Chapter 2

Continuing this just for kicks.

* * *

Kagome is still reeling when she finally finds her sister. She spots her with her boyfriend, getting ready to head home. He lives on the opposite side of town, but of course he'll walk her to her place first. Kagome is used to it.

Kikyou-nee-chan sure can pick them, Kagome thinks ruefully. Before dating her, Inuyasha was the best-known student who was never actually in class. Even if he only graced the classroom with his presence every other week, people remembered him because of his striking platinum blond hair that he'd inherited from his foreign father. Hair so light that it appeared almost white was considered very unusual, and for a half-Japanese to have it was nothing short of striking. Of course he got noticed. The fact that he grew it longer than most girls didn't exactly help his obscurity any.

Kagome remembers that she'd had a crush on him back then. But all the girls had. She remembers giggling with the other girls making indecent jokes about him and the other cute boys. She remembers that that stopped when he started dating Kikyou. And she has quietly hated him since the day he kissed her.

She follows them, Inuyasha carrying both his books and Kikyou's, the two in easy camaraderie. They don't see her, they don't look back. They only have eyes for each other.

You would think, thinks Kagome, that with all the time he spends making goo-goo eyes at her, he would know how to tell her apart from her twin.

No one knows about Inuyasha kissing her. Even Inuyasha himself probably doesn't know. Kikyou-nee-chan is always saying that his vision is bad, he needs glasses. Probably why he fell so far behind in school. It's just like that. He walked up to her, put his arms around her, and before she could object, kissed her on the mouth. "Inuyasha-san!" she said in shock, and he said, "Kikyou-san!" teasingly.

He probably hadn't known yet that Kikyou even had a twin. Kagome remembers him looking a bit uneasy at their introduction later, but he never said anything.

It was the day he kissed her that she cut her hair. Inuyasha hasn't made another mistake yet, so it seems to have been worth it.

Still. That had been her first kiss. Kagome cannot forgive him.

She might forgive him more easily if he were ugly.

Up ahead, Kikyou passes out in a dead faint.

Kagome is by her side almost before Inuyasha is there. Inuyasha looks momentarily surprised, but doesn't question her presence. They're twins. They're always doing weird stuff like that.

"Should we get her to a hospital?" Inuyasha asks. There's a little panic in his voice. She's fainted before, but never while he was alone with her.

Kagome remains calm. "No, she's been to hospitals before. They can't find a thing wrong with her. The best thing is just to take her home. She'll wake up soon enough. Maybe even before we get there," she adds optimistically. She doesn't mention the state Kikyou is usually in when she does wake up.

Inuyasha nods. "I'll carry her and my books, can you carry her books?"

"Sure."

Inuyasha hands Kagome Kikyou's books, and with his backpack on his back and both hands free, he picks up Kikyou gently. They continue, with Kikyou over his shoulder, her black hair falling over his back like a shroud.

For a while there is nothing but their footfalls on the sidewalk, and the occasional awkward stares of passers-by.

"This way?" Inuyasha asks at a turn, as if he had not walked this route so many times before.

"Yes," Kagome says.

"So, uh, what do you usually do when this happens?"

"Just put her in a comfortable place to rest. She comes around soon enough. It can be as little as ten minutes, or as much as an hour. If it happens at school, they put her on the cot in the nurse's office."

"And the doctors don't know anything?"

Kagome shakes her head. "They couldn't find anything. But then of course Grandpa goes on about how it's not a physical ailment, she's on a spirit quest." She snorts, showing what she thinks of that theory. "The worst is that Kikyou-nee-chan believes him. Kikyou-nee-chan believes everything Grandpa says. There's a reason she's the favorite."

Inuyasha thinks on that a moment. "Spirit quest, huh? I wonder."

"Don't tell me you believe that kind of stuff."

"Well, I don't really know. It might be a load of bull, or it might not."

"Pfft. You and Kikyou-nee-san deserve each other."

"Well, I don't usually think about that kind of stuff much," Inuyasha says. "But considering those dreams she's been having lately, you have to wonder."

"Dreams?"

"She didn't tell you?" Inuyasha asks in surprise.

"No," Kagome says quietly.

Inuyasha looks uneasy. Whatever the strange politics are between twins, he clearly wants no part in it.

"I wouldn't be surprised if she had weird dreams anyway," Kagome says. "With all those fairy tales Grandpa is always filling her ear with. All princesses and youkai and samurai and magical relics. Always spinning tales to impress people and sell stupid trinkets like that mermaid's hand or those ridiculous _shikon no tama_ replicas."

Inuyasha suddenly looks more interested. "What was that you said? Shikon no tama?"

"Yeah, these little glass balls he's always trying to sell. Something about the history of the shrine. Don't ask him about it, you'll never be able to shut him up. At least not until he sells you a dozen."

They arrive the entrance to the shrine, and begin climbing the many steps. Kagome feels sorry for Inuyasha mounting all those steps carrying both Kikyou and his books, and besides, even the two loads of books she's carrying have her breathing heavily by the time they get to the top.

After that, they go inside and are greeted by her family. Inuyasha lays Kikyou down on her bed, and Kagome lies down there with her. Inuyasha seems to feel he's intruding on something, and goes downstairs, but she can still him talking with her family, even if she can't make out the words. That's loyalty, she thinks. He won't go home until he knows she's okay, even if he feels it's rude or improper to stay in the room with her.

Kagome and Kikyou lie facing each other on the bed, and Kagome closes her eyes and waits.

Finally, she hears a gasp like one surfacing after a long dive, and both their eyes open at once. Kikyou's eyes flit to her surroundings with a sense of unfamiliarity and terror, and Kagome clasps her hands silently.

With a soft breath like a sigh, Kikyou embraces her sister and cries.

Kagome says nothing, does nothing to comfort her other than simply being there. Always Kikyou has been the frail one, the precious one, the gifted or blessed one. Kagome is just Kagome, the spare twin, the one who holds Kikyou when she cries. If she feels envy or resentment, she has forgotten what it was like to live without it.

Only this time is different. This time Kagome is unnerved by an experience she can't explain. She shivers, thinking of the strange almost-blackout and her vision of the field of flowers, and it seems that even thinking of it in Kikyou's presence makes the imagery more powerful.

When Kikyou is calmer, Kagome tells her, "I'm going to tell Inuyasha you're all right. Come down and eat some dinner if you can, otherwise get some rest."

"Inuyasha's here?"

"He carried you home. Very macho."

Kikyou smiles and leans back on her bed. "Tell him I'll see him tomorrow."

Kagome nods and turns to go downstairs.

"Oh, Kagome," Kikyou says, and Kagome turns around. "Is that a new jacket?"

Kagome looks down in surprise. She'd completely forgotten that Kagura had lent her her jacket. "Oh, a friend let me wear it," she says. "I have to give it back."

Downstairs, she relays the message to Inuyasha, who looks relieved. As an afterthought she asks, "Do you know Kagura?" It's not unreasonable. They're both somewhat delinquent.

"Kagura, the principal's daughter?"

"Yeah."

"I know her. I think my brother's dating her or something."

"Oh really!" Kagome exclaims. This is more information than she thought she'd get. "I didn't know you had a brother. Does he go to our school?"

"No, he's older," Inuyasha says. "Only a half-brother anyway...it's a long story."

"I see," Kagome says. "The reason I mentioned Kagura is, she lent me this jacket, and I don't know if I'll be able to find her in school again, given we're in different classes, and despite living with the principal her attendance record is spotty."

"Give it to me," Inuyasha says gruffly, "she'll probably even be at my place tonight. She practically lives there these days." His tone leaves no doubt as to how distasteful he finds this arrangement.

"Actually, I wanted to return it to her in person."

"Okay," Inuyasha says, and heads off.

"No, wait, I meant," Kagome says nervously, "Is it okay if I go with you?"

"Look, I'm not walking you there, walking back here, and walking there again. I do need to sleep sometime."

"You don't have to walk me home, stupid. I'm not some delicate flower like my sister."

Inuyasha looks torn. "Isn't your mom going to freak if you go across town with some boy this late on a school night?"

Kagome rolls her eyes. "Moooom!" she calls loudly. "I'm going out. With a boy. To have hot, nasty sex with his brother and their friends. And do drugs."

"Okay, dear. Just be home in time to walk your sister to school, okay?"

Inuyasha blinks. "Wow."

"Yeah. I know. Let's go."

"I always thought your family was more...protective," Inuyasha says as they head out the door.

"They are. Just not with me."


	3. Chapter 3

And still continuing.

* * *

The first ten minutes or so they walk in awkward silence, Kagome beginning to wonder if this Inuyasha fellow is such a nice person after all. The way he acts with her is completely different from how he acts with Kikyou. She remembers how her friend Yuka, who had perhaps caught the Inuyasha crush worst of all, said that Kikyou had tamed him, that she'd never seen anything like it.

Naturally, whatever power Kikyou possesses over him has skipped the younger twin.

"So, uh," Kagome says, "what TV shows do you like?"

"I don't have a TV," Inuyasha says candidly.

"No TV? Wow, and Kikyou-nee-chan said you were a luddite for not having a cell phone!" She whistles. "What are you, in the Middle Ages? Or are your parents the really stingy type?"

"My parents are dead," Inuyasha says, his tone completely even and uninflected.

"Oh. Uh," Kagome says eloquently. Kikyou would know the right thing to say, dammit. But what _do_ you say after that? 'There, there'? "Excuse me," she mutters, "I just need to get my foot out of my mouth. It'll only take a minute."

Inuyasha snorts. _Aha_, Kagome thinks. So he isn't made of stone. Encouraged, she continues, "I mean, I understand if you don't want to talk about it—and I understand if you do—because of my dad, you see..."

"I don't." And just like that, the ice has frozen over again. "I don't want to talk about it."

Maybe another twenty minutes pass, Kagome wishing fervently for the ground to swallow her up, Inuyasha calm, his expression unreadable. But things on Kagome's mind have a way of getting said.

"You're kind of a jerk," she blurts out.

"Keh! That's uncalled for," Inuyasha retorts.

"But you—!"

"_You_ are the one who wanted to probe into my 'dark and painful past.' Considering we hardly know each other, you don't think that was a little inappropriate?"

"Hey, I tried to talk about TV and family, the usual suspects. But _you_ had to be Mr. Glum and Serious. Not my fault every facet of your life seems to fall into the 'dark and painful' category."

"We could talk about your life," Inuyasha suggests.

"Like what?" Kagome asks, momentarily intrigued.

"I don't know. TV. Family. Your sister, maybe."

Cold anger settles on Kagome's heart. Is Kikyou _all_ he thinks about? "Why don't you tell me about her? Seems like you know her better than I do."

"What? I'm not the one who shared a womb with her!"

"Well, she doesn't tell me about her dreams. Or anything else, apparently."

"Maybe you didn't ask."

Great. Now she feels guilty, on top of it all. Maybe the jerk is right. Maybe she's been too busy feeling worried about Kikyou, or worse, jealous of her, to actually talk to her. She folds her arms and looks away from Inuyasha.

"You sure you want to come with me tonight?" Inuyasha asks.

"We're almost there, right?"

"Yeah, I guess." For a few moments they just hear the click of their shoes on the pavement. It's already late enough for the streetlights to be on, and Kagome shivers in Kagura's denim jacket. She brought a sweater in her bag, but to put the sweater on she'll have to take the jacket off, which doesn't seem like the best course of action.

They walk in silence a little more, the awkwardness between them almost tangible, until they both hear the sound of a motorcycle revving, and Inuyasha breaks in a run towards it with a swear. Kagome has a good guess why, and takes off after him.

Just ahead, a man and a woman sit on a motorcycle. The woman seems to see them, but looks away. If the man ever saw anything but the road ahead of them, he gives no indication. Inuyasha yells to them, but they ignore him, and the motorcycle speeds off into the night. Kagome watches them pass, and for a moment time seems to slow, almost grinding to a halt in the instant Kagura is level with her, her too-red eyes gleaming behind the black reflective visor of her helmet. She reaches out to steady herself, afraid of a performance like the one behind the school earlier. She catches Inuyasha's arm, and he glares at her, not without concern. "Are you all right, Kagome?"

"Fine...I think I just ran too fast before," she says, and he shakes his head.

"Well," Inuyasha says, as the sound of the departing motorcycle fades away, "we missed them."

Kagome stands there and looks at her feet. It wasn't a short walk here, either.

"Uh," Inuyasha says, "bye." He takes a step away from her, somewhat hesitant, as though his better judgment were against it.

"Wait," Kagome says, hoping she doesn't sound pathetic or anything.

"What?" There's no real edge to his voice, only tiredness. He's rude, she realizes, but it's not aimed at her with any malice. She'd mind it less if he were only just as rude to Kikyou.

"My family probably ate already," Kagome says. "By the time I get back, they may even be getting ready for bed. I don't want to disturb them. Since there's no one at your place, and you have to eat anyway..." she lets herself trail off, hoping her meaning is clear enough.

"Whatever," Inuyasha says. "Hope you like ramen."

Inuyasha leads her up a narrow staircase to a small second-story flat. He fumbles around for the lightswitch a moment, and a single, dim, somewhat flickering light comes on. Kagome wants to remark that perhaps he needs a new lightbulb, but she can imagine why he's not overly eager to see his surroundings. What the dim light reveals is plain, cheap, and ugly. Inuyasha wasn't lying about not having a TV, that was for sure. While the room isn't noticeably dirty, there's a pervasive smell of mildew.

"It's, uh..." Kagome grasps for the words. "Really nice!"

Inuyasha just grins and winks at her. He then swings open the cabinet, which is filled from top to bottom with packages of instant ramen.

"Wow," Kagome says. "You must _really_ like ramen."

Inuyasha wrinkles up his nose. "I hate it." He then busies himself in the kitchen preparing it.

"But why?" Kagome asks.

"Oh, just my asshole of a brother," Inuyasha grumbles. "The government requires him to take care of me, but they don't require him to take _good_ care of me. Ramen is cheaper than actually buying real food."

Kagome settles herself at the kotatsu, and turns the heater on. The futon hanging over the kotatsu is soiled and slightly stiff, and Kagome cringes. "Maybe he's just trying his best. What does he do?"

Inuyasha glares at her. "Nothing. He's a lazy fatass who gets a check from his mother every week, and would rather spend it on his fancy new bike and high-school floozies than put food on his table."

"That's shameful," Kagome says. It's all she can say. It's honest.

"Yeah," Inuyasha grumbles. "You're telling me."

Kagome pulls her homework out of her bag and sets it on the table. "Good idea," Inuyasha says. "Do mine too, would ya?" He tosses his bag over to her.

"No!" Kagome says incredulously. "I'm not going to _cheat_ for you!"

"It's not cheating. I'd probably get as many answers as you, this is just faster."

It's true, Kagome thinks, his grades have improved since Kikyou took an interest in him. _Could it be that Kikyou... _Kagome thinks in alarm. No. Her sister wouldn't cheat for some guy. _Then what's with this attitude?_

Kagome pointedly pushes Inuyasha's backpack aside, and starts her own homework. "Look, you want ramen or not?" Inuyasha says, waving the packet threateningly.

"You're saying, do your homework, or no food?" Kagome says. _He has balls, I'll give him that_, she thinks to herself.

Inuyasha smiles evilly. "Fair trade."

Kagome grumbles and pulls his homework out. She can start with the busywork. They have most of the same sheets, and she can just check the same things on both without too much effort. She'll leave the ones requiring actual thought—or telltale handwriting—to him. Since these questions are fairly easy, she tells herself he would have gotten them anyway. She smirks a little. She'll find out tomorrow if he can get the hard stuff on his own.

Fortunately for Kagome, ramen noodles are quick to cook, and before long Inuyasha is setting down three bowls at the table.

Kagome looks at the third bowl in surprise. "For Sesshoumaru?" But before Inuyasha can answer, a little girl with wild hair dashes out of one of the bedrooms and takes her place at the table.

Kagome looks at the child in shock. She's no older than eight, surely, and unlike Inuyasha and what she's glimpsed of his brother, has normal black hair. "Your sister?" Kagome asks.

"No," Inuyasha says, and is not any more forthcoming.

"Family of yours?"

"No."

Inuyasha and the kid slurp their noodles, and Kagome just sits there, this unexplained mystery in front of her. There are only two bedrooms, which means either the boys share one, or she shares with one of the boys. She feels a pang of maternal concern for the child.

"Well...who is she?" Kagome demands.

"Rin is Rin," the girl says enigmatically with her mouth full.

"That answers everything, of course," Kagome says. "But does Rin have a family?"

Rin stops momentarily, looking hurt, and Inuyasha cuts in. "Jeez, Kagome, why are you freaking out over the kid?"

"Well, you can't just take little girls and keep them as pets!" Kagome fairly shouts.

"Sesshoumaru can," Inuyasha says. "She's a foster child. Sesshoumaru keeps her for the monthly check."

Rin smiles widely. "Sesshoumaru-sama gets money from the government for taking care of me."

Kagome's jaw drops. "And then he feeds her _ramen noodles_ and pockets the money?"

"Yup," Inuyasha says. "Told you he was a scumbag."

Kagome starts getting her things together. "I'm going home."

"But you didn't finish your soup," Inuyasha says. Rin pulls Kagome's bowl over to herself surreptitiously.

"I'll live." She scrawls out a note quickly in her notebook, puts it in the pocket of Kagura's jacket, and tosses the jacket over to Inuyasha. "Give this to her when she gets back, okay?"

"Yeah, whatever."

Just as Kagome is storming out the door, Inuyasha says, "And about that time...I'm sorry, okay?"

"That time?"

"You know, when I...It was a mistake, all right?"

"Yeah. I know." She closes the door behind her, and pulls the sleeves of her sweater down over her hands.

The trip home is mostly uneventful. She gets a bit lost and doesn't recognize anything for a while, and passes a park, deserted in the dark. The night wind blows over it, bringing the sweet smell of flowers, and Kagome feels inexplicably uneasy. But soon she finds her way back to a major street, and from there it is easy to get home.


End file.
